Tomorrow night the Radnor Planning Commission will weigh more than a single set of blueprints. Owner-developer Joe Smogard's "preliminary/final" application to tear down 118 and 120 North Wayne Avenue — home to live-music venue 118 North and the now-vacant Omega Dry Cleaners — goes before the panel at 6:30 p.m. in the Radnorshire Room, 301 Iven Ave. If approved, the project would replace the two century-old buildings with a three-story, mixed-use building featuring ground-floor retail, second-floor offices, and four one-bedroom luxury apartments above.
Smogard, a Malvern homebuilder and Compass realtor who paid $2.3 million for the properties two years ago, calls it a "passion project" and intends to headquarter his businesses upstairs. He has extended 118 North's lease and pledged to build a smaller, purpose-designed performance space for the venue on the new ground floor — though the room would go dark for at least a year during demolition and construction, possibly longer.
The application has been before the planning board for more than a year. It still requires six full and two partial zoning variances covering parking, loading, stormwater management, buffering, and access via a single-lane rear alley shared by seven existing businesses. Two have been granted to date; the rest, plus a final greenlight from the Board of Commissioners, remain.
The chief sticking point at the February hearing was stormwater. Currently, runoff travels out the back of the property to an inlet in the adjacent apartment lot. Smogard's team has proposed a green roof to reduce runoff, with remaining water discharged onto North Wayne Avenue's pavement. Planning Commission Chair Lane Vines called the green roof "innovative" but flagged the discharge plan: "That's now moving new water onto North Wayne that never existed. That's a big change." The matter was tabled for revisions; tomorrow's hearing will reveal whether engineers have answered.
Reactions among neighboring businesses range from reluctant resignation to outright alarm. "It's really going to disrupt the businesses on North Wayne," said Chris Todd, whose restaurant has anchored the block for 25 years. "Growth is important to the town — but how painful is this going to be?" Main Point Books owner Cathy Fiebach is bracing for blocked sidewalks, lost parking, and dust damage to her inventory. At the Tiger Shop, men's clothier David Abraham — the street's longest tenant at 56 years — predicted "months of cranes, dumpsters, noise and a dozen lost parking spaces."
Andy Dickerson of Teresa's Café and Teresa's Next Door went further: "It's going to be a disaster and an eyesore. This could shutter us." Michael Coppola, second-generation owner of the 30-year-old Paolo's Cucina, focused on the parking math — the four new apartment spaces, he said, will be regularly blocked by trash trucks and deliveries in the already-tight rear lot. "Wayne has a parking problem — a severe one."
Smogard says he understands the concerns and is committed to a high-quality build. "Change is scary, and North Wayne Avenue doesn't see much change," he said. "I'm not trying to put in a modern box."
If approved — and several knowledgeable observers say the tea leaves point that way — the project would be the first ground-up infill redevelopment on North Wayne Avenue, and almost certainly not the last. Radnor's comprehensive plan explicitly invites this kind of dense, transit-oriented redevelopment in downtown Wayne. What happens tomorrow night will set the template.